


Saving Justice

by Choko_Mishami



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Attends Shujin Academy, Akechi Goro Has A Palace, Akechi Goro Needs a Hug, Akechi Goro and Sakura Futaba Are Half-Siblings, Akechi Goro is Bad at Feelings, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dissociation, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Slow Burn, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:27:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28539591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Choko_Mishami/pseuds/Choko_Mishami
Summary: Persona Users can't have a Palace, at least that's what Morgana says, but can a Persona withstand a shattering of will and doubt in ones character?
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Sakura Futaba, Akechi Goro & Sakura Sojiro, Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 5
Kudos: 43





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first fanfic so please feel free to share any tips and tricks! I apologize if the writing is too boldfaced or big my eyesight is very good, so unfortunately I can't see otherwise. This chapter is just little spice of Goro's backstory more will come, so I apologize for it being so short and please let me know if you like this fic!

Goro Akechi was a cursed child. He knew this from the moment he was born and the world seemed to be out to punish him for his birth.

Goro grew up in the small town of Kawagoe with his mother, she was all he had but that was enough for little Goro. In his eyes all he needed was his mother, he looked forward to every moment he could spend with here, even though there wasn’t a lot. His mother worked all night, so most mornings he had to make breakfast for the both of them, or he had to go hungry and when he came home after school she was usually getting ready for work while he had to make lunch for them both. But little Goro never complained, this was all he could ask for, all he wanted was to see his mother smile, all he wanted was mother. She was all he needed and yet the same couldn't be said for her.

Whenever his mother had to work she would send him to the nearby bathhouse, and he would have to stay there until early hours of the morning, he usually slept in the bathhouse and then when mornings came he would go home and make breakfast for the two of them and then go off to school. But sometimes he would be running late, or sometimes he would have days off from school and at those times he would hear his mother crying, he didn’t like when she was sad and would try his best to help her. But during these moments it was like she was a different person.

“Mama, why are you crying?,” Goro hesitantly asked, not knowing how she would react to him asking. He’s seen and done this many times before, and yet he could never predict what kind of reaction he would get. He took a look around and noticed the empty bottles across the floor and some syringes. Even though she heard him she never once answered, “Give me one second mama, I’ll clean everything up, and then you’ll be happy, right mama?” Goro began to clean up the bottles and throw them in the trash and yet his mother continued to not say a word, she just kept on crying almost as if she hadn’t heard him at all. Once the bottles were all cleaned up, Goro went to go pick up the syringes, but as he reached for it his hand was abruptly grabbed. He looked up and saw a look of raw anger on his mothers face, “Mama, what’s wrong are you okay?” Goro asked a little frightened at the look on his mothers face and the fact that she hadn’t let go of his hand yet. In fact her grip seemed to be only tightening.

“This is all your fault…” His mother began to whisper, but Goro didn't hear her, “What did you say mama? I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you” Goro tried to reach his other hand out to hug her as she had done plenty of times when he was crying, but she grabbed that hand too. “THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT YOU CURSED CHILD! ALL YOUR FAULT HE LEFT ME, IF YOU HADN’T BEEN BORN WE COULD’VE BEEN HAPPY TOGETHER! CURSED CHILD, DEMON CHILD, CURSED CHILD, DEMON CHILD….” His mother began to yell at him repeatedly and the more she yelled the more her grip tightened, to the point where he began to worry she would take his arm off. “MAMA YOU'RE HURTING ME, PLEASE STOP!” Goro pleaded and that seemed to snap his mother out of whatever trance she was in, “Oh my poor baby, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t mean to, I’m such a bad mother.” His mother let go of his hands and once again began to sob, this time he was able to put his arms around his mother in a hug. “ It’s ok mama, I know you didn’t mean, you’re the best mother in the world and I love you!” Goro proudly stated with a bright smile beaming of childlike innocence and his mother wiped her tears and smiled back.

There were plenty of times like this in a young Goro’s life, but it was fine he understood. It’s like all the other kids and adult said, he was a cursed child. He knew it was hard for her to take care of him due to that, besides he was the reason she lost everything, and yet she still raised him and cared for him.

Until one day he came home from school and began to prepare lunch, and he didn’t hear anything at all. ‘Maybe mama had a day off today?,’ Goro thought as he continued to peacefully make lunch. His mother had never had a day off before, so he decided he wasn’t going to bother her until after he had finished his homework and was ready to watch his daily Featherman episode with her.

Once finished with her homework, he went to knock on his mother’s door. “Mama, lunch is ready and featherman’s about to start!” Goro happily wiggled thinking about the new episode that would air today, he’d been waiting all week to watch it, and he simply couldn’t wait. He waited a moment and his mother still hadn’t responded, after a couple of minutes of continuous knocking and calling out for her, he decided to leave it alone and instead go watch the episode by himself. She worked hard every day, he understood if she needed a day to just rest and sleep away her worries, he would let her rest. After the episode he cleaned everything up, wished his mother goodnight and went to bed.

He woke up the next morning and waited at the table to eat breakfast with his mother, but she still hadn’t come out, and she still wouldn’t answer his calls. He didn’t know what to do, none of the neighbors even acknowledged their existence and nobody at his school did either. Maybe he was just overreacting? But something felt wrong, what should he do? His mother always said never to dial 110 or 119, they didn’t have the funds for that. But something was wrong, he knew it and yet his mothers words kept resounding in his head as it was something she constantly pestered him about, to never ask for help, to be independent, “You’re all alone in this world. NEVER rely on others and NEVER let anyone in as all they will do is destroy you.” His mother had always said these words to him, and he took them to heart. So that morning and the many mornings after that he just went along his day as normal, until one day he came back home and saw the police, the ambulance and his neighbor in the house.

His mother was dead, she had killed herself.

These moments were always in Goro’s head, they haunted his every thought, his every word, his every moment. As he stood in Shido’s office once again for his next assignment all he could think was.

My name is Goro Akechi and I’m a cursed child.


	2. The first break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro begins to break, unable to handle the strain of losing what's important to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! This is the first official chapter of Saving Justice, last chapter was just a brief moment of Goro's backstory which will continue to be expanded upon as new chapter's come out. WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: Self-harm and implied/referenced suicide, if more should be added please let me know as this is my first time doing this! This chapter has a flashback moment which is indicated and is written in Italics and there is a snippet of another character's perspective which is also indicated. Please let me know how you feel about that, so I can get a better idea as to whether I should continue that in the future or not. Oh! and Goro's thoughts are also indicated in italics. Thank you for reading!

  
  


*Knock Knock* 

Goro jumped up out of his sleep looking left to right, breathing like he’d just run a marathon, “Whazzit,” He tried to ask who it was, but he was still heeding sleeps call. “It’s time for us to go open up the  café Goro, so take care of that bedhead and let’s go,” With those words he heard Sojiro’s footsteps stomping down the stairs, hoping to wake him up even more as he does every morning. With a groan and one more flop to the bed, Goro got up and started getting ready for the day but before that he stopped in the mirror, “I do not have a bedhead,” Goro grumbled as he patted his hair down repeatedly to help support his grumble.

Once he had finished getting ready for the day, he made sure to make a stop and speak to his sister before heading out. “Good morning Taba, I hope you slept well, I’ll be sure to bring you over your breakfast as usual and maybe this time we can eat it together?” Goro asked quite nervously, it’s felt like forever since he last had breakfast with Futaba let alone saw her, and he missed that. He wanted his little sister back, but he didn’t know how to help her without making it worse for her. He felt a vibration from his pocket and he excitedly took out his phone knowing it was a message from Futaba.

**Tabby: Fine.**

He couldn’t even hold down the bright smile that came to his face and for once it wasn’t one of his Detective Prince smiles, He couldn’t remember the last time he’d smiled like this. With a spring to his step he and Sojiro made the trip over to Leblanc to get the curry ready for the day and to have breakfast. Once they were finished making the curry Goro quickly packed up two plate fulls to go and rushed to the door, “Hold it right there Goro,” Sojiro called out as he stepped out from the kitchen, “Where do you think you’re going?,” Sojiro looked at him with a stern look on his face which quickly changed to one of surprise when he saw the two packaged plates. 

Too excited to contain it all Goro began to bounce in place, “Futaba agreed to have breakfast with me!,” he said with so much excitement that it brought a smile to Sojiro’s otherwise grim mug. “Well don’t let me keep you waiting then, head on over there and tell her I’ll check on her for lunch ok?,” Sojiro was practically pushing him out the door at this point. “Yea yea, I will!,” and with that he was off. This day had started off great, and he only hoped it would stay this way or dare he say get even better!

He ran all the way to Leblanc back to the house and straight up to Taba’s room, “I’m back Taba I brought our breakfast and I recently got the new Featherman episode, I can grab it out of my room if you want to watch it together?!,” He was so excited he could barely contain himself, this was the first time in months that Taba had reached out to anyone and while it wasn’t much having breakfast through a door, it was a step forwards, and he hopes this means she’s getting better. He felt the familiar vibration of his phone in his pocket and hurried to take it out, nearly dropping it in his haste. 

**Tabby: Leave me alone.**

And just like that all the energy seemed to drain out of him, “But Taba you said we could have breakfast together, it’s our favorite and with some Featherman it’ll be great!,” Goro tried his hardest to keep his excitement up, to convince her to have breakfast with him. ‘ _ Please Taba you’re all I have if you keep pushing me away like this I-I’,  _ He then felt another vibration and looked at the phone in his hand with a blank expression on his face.

**Tabby: I want to be alone, Akechi please. Just leave me food there like usual and leave.**

He felt something break inside him at that moment, what it was he didn’t know. Taba had  **NEVER** called him Akechi even when they first met she had always called him Goro or Go-Go. When they first met he was 8 and Futaba was only 5, but that didn’t change a thing.

**_Flashback Begins_ **

_ “Futaba, I have a special someone for you to meet,” Wakaba called out as I stood behind her, my hands clenching her shirt as I shook from head to toe scared of what this new home would bring me. Wakaba seemed nice, but that’s how it always started, I wasn’t going to fall for it again. _

_ Just as I thought that a little girl came running out from around the corner and tackled Wakaba nearly causing me to fall from fright, ‘I knew it was too good to be true’, I thought hyperventilating and scratching at my arms, scared out of my mind of what was to come, what pain will be inflicted upon me next and as I stood there out of grip with reality i suddenly felt a person? No, this wasn’t just someone standing in front of me,  _ **_This person was hugging me._ ** _ It felt so good, that I calmed easily and melted into the embrace, I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been hugged, but now I never wanted this person to let go of me, unfortunately it couldn’t last forever.  _

_ The person pulled away and when I opened my eyes that I didn’t even realize I closed, I saw the same little girl from earlier beaming at me as she held onto my hands. “Hi! My name is Futaba, what’s your name?” The little girl started to bounce in excitement, and I began to shrink back afraid of what she could be so excited about, but all she did was hold my hands gentler, and it felt comforting. “I-I-I Go-Go-Goro” So scared of answering, in fear of what it may bring upon me, I embarrassingly stammered my way through my name, nearly butchering it.  _

_ As I sat there thinking about how stupid I sounded, I suddenly felt my self being pulled somewhere and nearly fell back into a panic attack at the realization, until the little girl, no  _ **_Futaba_ ** _ spoke again,” Come on Go-Go the new episode of Featherman is about to start!” As she continued to pull me all I could think was ‘Go-Go?’, “W-Wait my name is- hold on did you say FEATHERMAN?!” I hadn’t seen Featherman in ages! None of the foster homes I’d been to in the past would even allow me outside of my cage or closet, all of this was so new to me. “Yes Yes, come Go-Go Featherman!” She continued to pull me and along the way we began to chant,”FEATHERMAN! FEATHERMAN!” Meanwhile, Wakaba stood off to the side, smiling happily as her two children got along beautifully, she knew she had made the right decision in saving Goro. _

**_Flashback Ends_ **

As he placed the food outside of Futaba’s door he slowly walked away and out the house straight to school, he didn’t even bother to eat that morning. As the day dragged on he couldn’t even feel anything, he just felt numb. ' _ HA even she knows what an unwanted cursed child you are! Nobody could ever love you or even want you, what the hell are you on? Useless good for nothing maggot, what made you think she could ever want you around? You’re nothing, you can’t even save her, a waste of a human being and big brother!'  _ All these horrible words started blending together in his head, he couldn’t even tell who was saying them. Was it Loki? Robin Hood? Wakaba? His mother? … Futaba? 

He was so lost in the whispers he didn’t even notice the bell rang for the end of school until the teacher had come over to tell him. He felt a hand on his shoulder and instantly flinched back, a fear that had been embedded into him from childhood. Goro hated being touched, “Mr. Sakura? I’m sorry class had ended, and you weren’t moving, so I got a little worried.” The teacher tried to apologize, but he didn’t even stay to listen, He grabbed his stuff and ran out the door as fast as he could. He could feel the bile rising up in his throat, his breaths started to become uneven, and his whole body began to shake with a fear so bone deep he couldn’t even think. His thoughts were so scrambled, only one thing was going through his mind ‘ _ Get away, get away, Must get away,  _ **_IT HURTS!_ ** He continued to run, not looking or even knowing where he was going until he had ended up in an alley right outside the train station leading to Yongen. 

From there everything seemed to blend together, He took out his phone and he smashed it, he stomped all over it until there nothing was left of it. He then grabbed his putty from out of his pocket and began to throw it and angrily step on it as well. This is how Goro Akechi Isshiki Sakura reacted to a panic attack, he became destructive, he wanted to destroy the world like the world had done to him. ‘ **_FUCK THIS WORLD, FUCK SHIDO, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK’_ ** He was so pissed he could barely even think, he didn’t even notice his panic had vanished. 

He started to bash his fists into the wall, wanting to feel the pain, feeling like he deserved it for everything he’s done, for killing all those people, for even aligning himself with Shido and doing his bidding, for being a useless trash heap of a human being who couldn’t even help his own little sister. All of a sudden all the anger in his had faded away and he was once again left with the chill and bitterness of nothing. He didn’t feel a damn thing and At that moment he couldn’t even find it in himself to care.

After that he went straight home and into his bed, normally he would go to the police station and see if there was anything that Sae needed help with, but At that moment he couldn’t bring himself to care. He just stared into the ceiling feeling like he needed  _ something _ , but what could it be? 

That’s when he looked down at his hands and he noticed the blood dripping from when he had punched the wall. While the sight should’ve disgusted him, it only made him fascinated. He started to remember the amount of blood that had been surrounding his mother’s body when they found her, nobody wanted to touch him in case they would “catch the curse” so he was able to see everything and one thing he had remembered At that moment was the look of peace and the smile his mother had on her face as she laid there dead with her wrists slit. 

He wanted to feel like that too, he loved the feeling of nothingness, but he longed for more and At that moment he wanted peace. The blood from his bashed up wrists helped him to feel something, but it wasn’t enough. He stepped out of his room and went down to the kitchen after a careful look around to make sure that Sojiro wasn’t home, he dug into one of the drawers and found the sharpest knife they had. One good thing about Sojiro owning Leblanc is that he did all his cooking there since he was in the  café all day, he wouldn’t miss this. 

Goro snuck back up the stairs, stopping a moment outside of Futaba’s door. Debating, thinking, ' _Should I knock? I always take a moment to speak to Futaba when I get back', ‘_ **DiDn'T YOu HeaR tHe LiTTle LaDy?, ShE DoESn't NeED oR WaNTs YOu AnYMoRE!’** He winced in pain as Loki seemed to scream it into his head and with that he stomped away from her door, slamming his without looking back.

**_Futaba Snippet_ **

Little did he know that Futaba sat in her room all day worrying and waiting for him to come home. She had felt guilty all day for what she had done and so she had tried to text Goro as soon as school got out to apologize, but he never responded. She had the featherman episode up and waiting for them to watch together and for the first time in months to eat dinner together. She missed her Go-Go as well and yet for the first time he didn’t come to her room to wish her goodnight or to talk to her about his day or ask about hers and he did it everyday. Was Goro okay? Did he give up on her? Futaba flinched and once again covered her head with her blanket as she began to hear the voices again. 

**_Futaba Snippet End_ **

Goro began to slice away at his wrists without a moment's delay. Everything from the day, everything from his life, he was letting out all his emotions into each slice of the knife and when he was done with one wrist, he quickly exchanged it for the other one. He didn’t even realize that as he was slicing tears were streaming down his face or that he was beginning to cut too deep.  ‘ **_STOP’_ ** It wasn’t until he heard the panicked scream of Robin Hood that he stopped and took a good look at his wrists and all he could do was smile . 

He had slit his wrists so badly that he couldn’t even see the cuts, there was so much blood that he felt like he could taste it. He had never felt more alive than he did in that moment and he didn’t want to stop, but he knew that Sojiro would be coming home soon. He knew he had to move soon or rish Sojiro finding out which he could never allow, but he just felt so tired and before he knew it he was out with one last thought,  _ ‘Was this how my mother felt?’ _

He woke up a little bit later to the sound of the front door unlocking and Sojiro calling for him, he blinked his eyes wondering what the hell had happened? Then he looked down, and he saw all the dried up blood all over his arms. He heard Sojiro holler again from downstairs and he quickly ran into the bathroom before Sojiro could see him. 

He began trying to wash the blood off and putting on peroxide to help the cuts heal, when a knock came to the door, “Hey kid, you in there?,” Sojiro called from outside the door, “I missed you today, wanted to introduce you to my new part timer.”  _ Part-timer?  _ Was the first thing that ran through Goro’s head but then he remembered.  _ The delinquent he was taking in, he started working at Leblanc today? How many nights have I missed at Leblanc?  _ “Kid you ok in there?” Sojiro called again,  _ Shit I’ve been in my head for too long, _ “Yea i’m fine Sojiro, just washing my hands and don’t worry I’ll take out the trash when i’m done!”  _ I can’t let him see the bandages. _ There was a pause and then,“Alright kid, i’m going to head off to bed, I expect you to be ready to work all day tomorrow as well. Goodnight kid.” With that Sojiro sauntered off, “Goodnight Sojiro!” Goro called and quickly finished things up in the bathroom before Sojiro got suspicious.

_ 'Wait he said work all day tomorrow? Shit is it the weekend already? How the hell am I going to explain my hands? I’ll have to come up with an excuse not to work tomorrow.' _ After he had finished he went to bed and thought about everything that had happened today. As he thought about everything, only one thought came to his mind,  _ ‘Maybe one day i’ll be able to join my mother’ _

**_Thou hast fallen, Thou hast lost thy way_ **

**_Thou hast broken a vow_ **

**_The strength acquired by thy vow is lost to thee_ **

**_With the end of the Hermit Persona,_ **

**_Thou has tightened the chains on thy heart_ **

**_And has lost the way to freedom and new power_ **


End file.
